Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-09-17

and wealth to social uses, and thus finally
do away with misery and pauperism.
This method is undoubtedly, as said.
the only right one, and profoundly
philosophical one, and their hypothesis
is definite enough conception and
workiHg hypothesis. But is it correct?
that is to say, is it at all likely that they
have guessed right rs to the future social
order? There is certainly not the least
evidence that our great capitalists are
becoming more inclined to use their in
creaSing power for the social good, and,
moreover, no evidence at all that such IA
spiritual authority is going to assert it.
self; in other words, that any new edi-
ton of the Catholic hierarchy of the
Middle Ages is being evolved or will be
accepted.
Nevertheless, this Positivist hypothesis
has been very fruitful. Here. as else
where, an incorrect hypothesis has been
instrumental in disclosing many new
facts and relations.
There have been and are, however,
other thoughtful men, who, specializing
upon the consequences OF the French
Revolution, and listening to the footballs
of coming events, have formed another
equally we'll working hypothesis as to
their nature, and us to the new social
order which they will inaugurate. |
have in another volume CThe CO-opera-
tire Commonwealth, assumed to sketch
in its broad outlines, this future
social order to which we, with them,
look forward, and which | have styled
"The Cooperative Commonwealth 1t
is this hypothesis here purpose for the
first time to use, so to speak, as spectacles
through which to look at the French
Revolution; in other words, | assume
the cooperative commonwealth to be. if
not the final, at least the neat, stage in
the evolution of human societies, and
shall try to explain the French Revolu
ton by considering it as most impor
tant step toward that stage.
believe shall convince many of my
readers of the correctness of my hypoth-
ess, from its ability to account for all
phenomena. And if it is the true
one then the French Revolution
will necessarily become invested
with a new interest, with a peroOnm in
terest, for us, for it will thereby become
a part of or history. It's relation to us
will then be reversed. As hitherto it has
been looked upon as a curiosity to be
explained, so now it will be used to eX-
plain our own situation. 1t will not only
become an example or a warning to us,
but a guide that will teach us, not to
prevent revolutions, for that would be to
prevent progress, but how to prepare for
our Coming ReroMtion, and how to carry
it through in an 0rleriy manner,
And Danton' 1t is evident from the
above that my object has not been to
write his biography; that my object has
been much wider one. Yet to describe
and discuss the events of the French
Revolution is necessarily to discuss the
work of Danton, since it fills a greater
part of the French annals during the
five tire-breathing years than the work
of all his contemporaries combined. 1t
ought, however, to be distinctly under
stood what he did and what he did not
do. He did not make the Revolution.
No one did. 1t made itself in the minds
of the twenty-five million Frenchmen
then existing Dantons included. But
even here he may be taken as the very
embodiment of the Revolution, and bet
ter than any one else as the typical
French RevOlutiOnist of those days. Per-
haps he also contributed more than any
one else, not excepting Mrabeau, to re-
move the stumbling-b in the way of
the Revolution.
But while he did not make the Revo-
luton, he more than once sared it. He
was, indeed, as Carlyle called him, the
Atlas who in the most critical period
carried the Revolution on his shoulders.
Moreover, being more constructive
genius than any of his contemporaries,
he lrid the right foundation for the fu-
ture; and his policy should have the
credit for nearly all the good his success
sors accomplished, as it would have
saved France from all the subsequent
penalties she had to pay, had it beeu
constantly pursued.
Next, DantOn the monster, Danton as
nearly all our historians paint him, is
purely creation of the imagination. 1t
is the French Posihvists above men
toned who at last have rehabilitated
him, and presented him in his true pro-
portions. That Danton, as man and
citizen, was pure, was a heroic charac-
. ter, is now abundantly proved by the
great mass of new material which these
, Positivist philosophers, as well as Alfred
Bougeart, have collected during the last
twenty-five years, but which no one,
believe, has translated into English as
yet. Indeed, his principal defect, one
) that cost France dearly, was his perfect
e lack of ambition.
1 The principal lessons which this vol
ume will draw from the French Revolu-
I ton, in the way of example and warning,
2 are, that Danton was a true instrument
in the hands of the Power behind Eyolu-
{ ton, and just the Kind of leader ne IN
f orr generation should encourage; that, on